Recently I have completed a solar hydronic installation at my personal residence. In our sunny location in the Southern San Juan Mountains, I anticipate this system will supply 75% of our heating and domestic hot water needs.
Our home, recently completed. We used an "ICF" system called Performwall for the exterior walls, and icynene spray foam in the roof system. This provides a very efficient construction.
The array comprised of 6 4' X 10' flat plate collectors located about 100' from the house. An antifreeze solution is circulated through the panels and an exchanger located in a 1000 gallon storage tank buried beneath the garage floor.
By using a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) system, I am able to closely monitor and control the operation of the system from a screen located in my home office. The PLC allows the system to make control decisions based on all of the system conditions and setpoints. For example if there is a surplus of heat in storage the PLC may decide to activate a snowmelt system in our front porch, or if the heat in storage is depleted it will activate the backup LP boiler.
In these pictures you see the various components that make it all work, pumps, valves, and the backup boiler. The array of pumps circulate heat transfer fluid through an exchanger located in the storage tank and the tubing imbedded in the floor of our home.
